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The Shadow
The Shadow is a 1994 American superhero film from Universal Pictures, produced by Martin Bregman, Willi Bear, and Michael Scott Bregman, directed by Russell Mulcahy, that stars Alec Baldwin. The film co-stars John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller, Ian McKellen, Jonathan Winters, Peter Boyle, and Tim Curry. Plot In Tibet, following the First World War, American Lamont Cranston, succumbing to his dark instincts, sets himself up as a warlord and opium kingpin under the alias of Yin-Ko (said to mean "Dark Eagle" in a Mandarin Chinese dialect).5 He is abducted by servants of the Tulku, a holy man who exhibits otherworldly powers and knows Cranston's identity. He offers Cranston a chance to redeem himself and become a force for good. Cranston refuses but is silenced by the Phurba, a mystical, sentient, flying, three-edged dagger. Ultimately, Cranston remains a student under the Tulku for seven years. In addition to undergoing rigorous physical training, he learns how to hypnotize others, read their minds, and bend their perceptions so that he cannot be seen, except for his shadow. Returning to New York City, Cranston resumes his former life as a wealthy playboy, while secretly operating as the Shadow, a vigilante who terrorizes the city's underworld. He recruits some of the people he saves from criminals to act as his agents, providing him with information and specialist knowledge. Cranston's secret identity is endangered upon meeting Margo Lane, a socialite who is also telepathic. Shiwan Khan, the Tulku's rogue protégé and a murderer whose powers apparently surpass Cranston's, wakes up inside the sarcophagus that once held his ancestor, the Mongol Empire founder Genghis Khan, retrieved from his unmarked burial site. He uses hypnosis to make a security guard shoot himself in the head after the guard refuses to join Khan's army. Khan plans to fulfill his ancestor's goal of world domination. He offers Cranston an alliance, but Cranston refuses. Cranston acquires a rare coin from Khan and learns that it is made of a metal called "bronzium" (an impure form of uranium) that theoretically can generate an atomic explosion. He also learns that Reinhardt, Margo's father, a scientist working on building an atomic device for the Department of War, has disappeared. Cranston deduces that Khan needs Reinhardt and his invention to complete an atomic bomb. Shiwan Khan hypnotizes Margo and commands her to kill the Shadow. She goes to Cranston's home, but after trying to kill him, Cranston breaks Khan's hypnotic hold on her. Because she was ordered to kill the Shadow and instinctively went to Cranston's home, she now realizes that he is the Shadow. After Reinhardt's assistant Farley Claymore allies with Khan, Cranston prepares to rescue Margo's father but is thwarted by Khan's henchmen. The Shadow finally discovers Khan's location: The luxurious Hotel Monolith, a building in the middle of the city that Khan has rendered forgotten and invisible to everyone. Knowing Reinhardt has completed the bomb under hypnotic control, the Shadow enters the hotel for a final showdown with Khan. The Shadow fights his way through the building and hypnotically influences Claymore to jump from a balcony to his death after Claymore attempts to kill him. Finding Khan, he is subdued by the Phurba. The Shadow realizes that the dagger works on instinct, and he finally seizes it. The Shadow launches it into Khan's torso, creating a lapse in Khan's hypnotic control that frees Reinhardt and restores the hotel's public visibility. The Shadow pursues Khan into the bowels of the building, while Margo and Reinhardt disarm the bomb. The Shadow defeats Khan by telekinetically hurling a broken shard of mirror glass into Khan's frontal lobe. A confused Khan awakes in the padded cell of a mental hospital and discovers that his powers are gone. One of the doctors (also an agent of The Shadow) tells Khan that they were able to save his life by removing a part of his brain "that nobody uses", which in reality controlled Khan's psychic abilities. Soon after, Cranston and Margo begin a serious relationship and join forces to fight the criminal underworld. Cast * Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston / The Shadow6 * John Lone as Shiwan Khan, a descendant of Genghis Khan * Penelope Ann Miller as Margo Lane * Peter Boyle as Moses "Moe" Shrevnitz * Ian McKellen as Dr. Reinhardt Lane * Tim Curry as Farley Claymore7 * Jonathan Winters as Wainwright Barth * Sab Shimono as Dr. Roy Tam * Andre Gregory as Burbank * James Hong as Li Peng * Joseph Maher as Isaac Newboldt * Max Wright as Berger * Ethan Phillips as Nelson * Frank Welker as the voice of Phurba Gallery Trivia Category:1994